Jed LaCoste

Jed LaCoste
jed.lacoste@uregina.ca

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James Emile Douglas (J.E.D.) LaCoste is a Lecturer in English at Luther College at the University of Regina. Born and raised in Regina, JED earned undergraduate degrees in English and Classics from the University of Saskatchewan and pursued graduate studies at both Dalhousie University and Western University before returning to Regina to lecture for Luther College.

JED's research and teaching focus on connections between fiction, narrative theory, and ethics, focusing on literary techniques that position readers as ethically responsible subjects and that ask readers to face and accept responsibility. The central idea behind his research, and a cornerstone of his approach to literature in the classroom, is that literature can encourage readers to act ethically and responsibly in their own lives if and when readers face these texts in an active, engaged, and ethically responsible way. These ideas are closely connected with the principles of effective, efficient, and direct expression and honest, objective argumentation, skills that JED enthusiastically introduces and develops in the first-year courses he teaches. While his primary research area is American Literature, JED is also interested in fantasy literature, popular culture, and literary theory. He has presented academic papers on these and a variety of other topics over the last decade.

 

Courses Taught

ENLG 100 - Critical Reading and Writing I
ENGL 110 - Critical Reading and Writing II: The Road to Middle-Earth
ENGL 110 - Critical Reading and Writing II: Race, Gender, and Justice in the American Novel

 

Current Research and Community Work

JED's academic and community activities overlap in many ways. His current research and community efforts focus on issues involving social justice and education, particularly for aboriginal people, new immigrants, and refugees. He is also very interested in the increasingly important topic of autism in the English classroom.